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To become a better writer, read as much as you can

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Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#121

Post by archagon »

whatever1 wrote: post #53
Freak_NL wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I don't have time to read Keats. T.R. Napper explicitly states that you do in his piece: > But I am saying this: go look at your phone, and tell me what your average screen time is per day. Two hours? Five? Seven? If so – shut up: you’ve time to read. It doesn't have to be Keats. Start by building the habit (read in bed before sleeping!) and just read whatever you enjoy. If Keats seems like a hurdle, just pick…

Typically screen time is very scattered through the day. You cannot read a book in 30” increments.

Stephen King talks about this in On Writing. He carries a book with him wherever he goes and reads in 10m increments throughout the day.

So yes, it’s very possible. (Even easier if you are amenable to audiobooks IMO.)

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#122

Post by throwrioawfo »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #117

Counterpoint: To become a better writer, write as much as you can. Reading gives you a flavor, a taste, a style, it allows you to occupy the thoughts of another human. But getting your thoughts written down? That's writing, not reading. Actually practicing the art of writing is better for your craft than reading someone else's writing. Matthias Wandel a famous woodworker on YT says it: most of his audience are watchi…

Both reading and writing are necessary, but writing alone is not sufficient.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#123

Post by KineticLensman »

tokyoseb wrote: post #50
shamohit711 wrote: post #47

Polite disagreement. To write (or feel the urge to write), you should have a point of view (unique povs are more interesting). To have a point of view, you need to engage with the thing in front of you. It can be a video that you disagree with, or agentic output you're belting into shape. The advice of "read more to write better" is incomplete IMO. I'd change it to "read/engage critically to write better". Else readi…

Indeed. As a young voracious reader I used to think that more reading is an unmitigated good until I came across Schopenhauer and his aphorisms. I try now to be more selective, life is short, and to engage more deeply with what I read. "The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some…

I can see his point that it is worth learning to think for yourself, but if you then try to publish your thoughts without understanding what else is out there (e.g. by reading about it), the results could be very embarrassing. This would seem to apply in both philosophy (which I'm assuming Schopenhauer was discussing) and (say) genre fiction.

Incidentally, having quickly scanned some of Schopenhauer's actual writing [0], I found statements such as "women are suited to being nurses and teachers of our earliest childhood precisely because they themselves are childish, silly and short-sighted" and women "are inferior to men in respect of justice, honesty and conscientiousness". If I'd come across these first I'd be very reluctant, rightly or wrongly, to uncritically accept his views on other subjects.

[0] https://www.scribd.com/document/509571816/Schopenhauer-Arthu...

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#124

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

Guestmodinfo wrote: post #68
vintagedave wrote: post #63

> Why be a writer if you don’t love reading? Why devote your intellectual and emotional energy to creating a book, when it’s a form you’re not invested in? Why write, when you aren’t steeped in wonder of storytelling? This is the key point, I think. I've seen the same as the author: people who want to be writers but rarely read books. And I don't get it. I recently finished a novel (now shopping around for agents, wh…

Please please suggest me some books where language and style of speaking sentences takes the crown rather than the story being the selling point. I'm tired of hearing about the usual greats and also booker prize ones because they have good characters and good story content or shocking emotionally but are quite bland on the language front because they assume their readers have grade 5 level capacity so the sentences a…

John Updike. Better than average prose in all of his books, but his debut The Poorhouse Fair is outstanding. It may be too much for modern readers - not many explosions or super heroics - but even if you only get a chapter in, it shows what can be done with English.

Moby Dick is unexpectedly stylish. You'd think a story about a whale would be more genre-ish, but the writing is very fun.

Then there are heavy hitters are writers like Gabriel García Márquez, Tom Wolfe, and Virginia Woolf.

James Joyce is the end level boss. Ulysses is readable, but by the time you get to Finnegan's Wake it's hard to imagine anyone getting more abstract.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#125

Post by bluebarbet »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #109
vintagedave wrote: post #63

> Why be a writer if you don’t love reading? Why devote your intellectual and emotional energy to creating a book, when it’s a form you’re not invested in? Why write, when you aren’t steeped in wonder of storytelling? This is the key point, I think. I've seen the same as the author: people who want to be writers but rarely read books. And I don't get it. I recently finished a novel (now shopping around for agents, wh…

As the old quip goes: people don’t want to be writers, they want to have published a book. You can turn this around as well: people don’t want to read, they want to be well read. The difference is “effort and process” versus a status. People want the label, but don’t want to do the work to get there.

Nicely put. When I read, "I always knew I wanted to be a writer", I always think to myself, "Oh yeah? But did you know what you wanted to write?" Anecdotally, it feels like I've seen that line in a whole bunch of early-20th-century biographies and journalism - back at height of the profession's prestige, perhaps not coincidentally.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#126

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

vintagedave wrote: post #91
BoingBoomTschak wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read some mature Discworld content ( Guards! Guards! is the best entry point, I'd say), it's an easy read too. Pratchett's skill with English would make even a tax report smooth and riveting. No need to always flex with some highbrow stuff to find a masterful style.

Yes - he's popular for a reason, not pop, but that he deserves popularity. I wonder about being highbrow... in that yes you're right, that's how he's viewed, and he's well-known and it's fantasy and it's comedic and therefore cannot be highbrow (awful how we judge these things) but he has some very insightful ideas or ethics he wants to communicate. If, to me, lowbrow vs highbrow is about depth or insight, or long-la…

His stories are beautiful. The language is very ordinary. (Not a criticism.)

I would absolutely call him a landmark writer, but I wouldn't call him lit fic in the publishing sense.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#127

Post by nayroclade »

Guestmodinfo wrote: post #68
vintagedave wrote: post #63

> Why be a writer if you don’t love reading? Why devote your intellectual and emotional energy to creating a book, when it’s a form you’re not invested in? Why write, when you aren’t steeped in wonder of storytelling? This is the key point, I think. I've seen the same as the author: people who want to be writers but rarely read books. And I don't get it. I recently finished a novel (now shopping around for agents, wh…

Please please suggest me some books where language and style of speaking sentences takes the crown rather than the story being the selling point. I'm tired of hearing about the usual greats and also booker prize ones because they have good characters and good story content or shocking emotionally but are quite bland on the language front because they assume their readers have grade 5 level capacity so the sentences a…

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian especially. His style won't be to everyone's tastes, but you certainly can't describe it as bland.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#128

Post by cl3misch »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #113
hrnnnnnn wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine instead the post was about people who want to make music but don't listen to it. I literally cannot imagine being a musician who doesn't listen to music.

There are many game devs who don't play games. A lot of artists would rather be working on movies, and a lot of programmers who just love to program. The best game devs all do though.

But are these game devs designing the gameplay loop? Or are they working on backend, like the engine?

I could imagine a (solo) game dev not self-describe as a gamer, but they must have some intuition about what makes (video/board) games fun and engaging.

I can't imagine you can obtain that without ever playing games yourself?

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#129

Post by bluebarbet »

dev1ycan wrote: post #92
chmike wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't get it Is it hard to understand that for some people it may be difficult to read ? It might be due to motivation issues, thrust issues, or concentration issues. While at the same time they may have a rich inner imagination or thinking that they would like to share. My impression is that humanity might miss valuable insight by rejecting whatever is not "well written" whatever the reason might be. You may fee…

Yeah, I don't think anyone is missing anything from someone who doesn't know/like how to read, sorry. There's other mediums to express ideas that isn't books if you are functionally illiterate.

I'll resist the temptation to dunk on that last line.

The case for reading (and why its demise may lead us to dark places) was laid out very recently: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-...

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#130

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

throwrioawfo wrote: post #122
WhompingWindows wrote: post #117

Counterpoint: To become a better writer, write as much as you can. Reading gives you a flavor, a taste, a style, it allows you to occupy the thoughts of another human. But getting your thoughts written down? That's writing, not reading. Actually practicing the art of writing is better for your craft than reading someone else's writing. Matthias Wandel a famous woodworker on YT says it: most of his audience are watchi…

Both reading and writing are necessary, but writing alone is not sufficient.

Any art needs theory, practice, and study of the greats. Unless you're some kind of exceptional genius talent out of the gate - and no one is, really - you need inspiration from other work, imitation, understanding, and practice of your own work.

It helps a lot if you're obsessive and/or enjoy it a lot. Ideally both.

None of these are a substitute for talent, but likewise talent isn't a substitute for them.

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